Working with Contacts

Table of Contents  [ Hide]

Navigate Contacts
Search Contacts
Create List Views
Create Contacts
Create Contact Individually
Import Contacts
Capture Contacts from Website (Web-to-Contact Form)
Associate Contact with other Records
Merge Duplicate Contacts
Change Contact Owner
Print Contact Details
View Reports
Delete Contacts
Customize Contacts

Contacts are people with whom you communicate, either in pursuit of a business opportunity or for personal reasons. In Business-to-Consumer (B2C) scenario, contact is the most important information for acquiring customers, whereas in Business-to-Business (B2B) it is a part of the organization details with which you are doing business.

Contacts can be added to the Zoho CRM system by filling the contact form, importing contacts from other Contact Management & CRM applications, synchronizing contacts from the Microsoft Outlook software, or converting leads to contacts. Contact information can include address, title, phone numbers, e-mail address, birth date, and other personal details of an individual. While converting leads to contacts, an account will also be created.

The most important function of contacts module in the Zoho CRM system is that they can be used for both customers' acquisition as well as procurement of products from the vendors, i.e., contacts can be related to accounts as well as vendors according to your business process.

The table below provides information on the availability of Contacts module in various editions.

Navigate Contacts

Search Contacts

Create List Views

(Access Privilege: Read/Write)

The Contacts Module consists of Standard and Custom views. By default, Zoho CRM provides a list of standard views that are ready to use by all users in your organization. In addition, you can also create customized views and share with colleagues in your organization.

• Standard Views: You can modify the standard views and sort the order of the columns in the list. You can delete this view mode, provided you have been given the access to do so by the administrator.
• Custom Views: You can create view modes, modify, delete custom views, and sort the order of the columns in the list.

By default, the following standard view modes are available in the Contacts module:

• Standard Views
  • All Contacts
  • My Contacts
  • New This Week
  • New Last Week
  • Unread Contacts
  • Mailing Labels
    
• Recent Views
  • Recently Created Contacts
  • Recently Modified Contacts
  • Recently Viewed Contacts 

To know more about creating list views, refer Managing List Views .

To create custom views

1. Click the Contacts tab.
2. In the Contacts Home page, click the Create View link.
   
3. In the Create New View page, do the following:
   • In the View Information section, enter the custom View Name. 
   • In the Specify Criteria section, specify the filter criteria. 
   • In the Choose Columns section, select the columns to be displayed in the view mode. 
     
     
     
   • In the Accessibility Details section, define the user accessibility to view the custom lists.
4. Click Save.

Note: In the View drop down list, the standard view modes are displayed. You can only rearrange the order of the columns or add more columns.

Create Contacts

(Access Privilege: Read/Write)

In Zoho CRM, you can create contacts by:

• Entering data in contact details form
• Duplicating the contact with few changes from the existing contact details
• Importing contacts from other Contact Management applications
• Converting leads to contacts
• Synchronizing Microsoft Outlook contacts with Zoho CRM

Note: Some of the standard fields listed below may not be visible/editable depending on your organization business process. In case your organization added/modified fields, please contact your System Administrator for more details on the usage of other fields.

To know the List of Standard Contact-related Fields, click here.

Create Contact Individually

To create contacts individually

1. In the Contacts module, click New Contact.
2. In the Create Contact page, enter the contact information.
3. Click Save.
   For more details, refer Associating Contact with Other Records.

Note: By default, the person who creates the contact owns it. If you want to assign the contact to a different user, in contact creation form, select the user name from the Assigned To field.

To create contacts instantly

1. Click the Contacts tab.
2. On the left pane of the Home page, select Contacts from the Quick Create list.
3. Enter the relevant details.
   
4. Click Save.

To create duplicate contacts

1. In the Contacts tab, click a particular contact that you want to be duplicated
2. In the Contact Details page, click Clone.
3. In the Clone Contact page, modify the required contact details.
4. Click Save.

Import Contacts

Capture Contacts from Website (Web-to-Contact Form)

Associate Contact with other Records

(Access Privilege: Read/Write)

You can create a 360-degrees view of the contact to display all the associated details, such as potentials, trouble tickets, open activities, history of the completed activities, attachments, and notes.

To associate contact with other records

1. In the Contact: <Contact Name> page, you can update the following details:
   • Member Accounts: To add other divisions or subsidiaries to the parent account.
   • Open Activities: To add tasks and events
   • Closed Activities: To display all the closed tasks and events
   • Cases: To create cases for the contact
   • Products: To add products for the contact
   • Attachments: To attach documents and notes
   • Notes: To attach notes to the contact.
   • Potentials: To add potentials to the account
   • Contacts: To add contacts to the account
   • Sales Orders: To add sales orders to the account.
   • Invoices: To add invoices to the account.
   • Quotes: To add quotes.

1. In the Contact Details page, the existing potential details, if any, are displayed.
   
   • Click Potential Name, Amount, Stage, Probability (%), Closing Date, or Type links to sort the display order of the records.
   • Click the relevant Edit or Del link to modify or delete the potentials respectively. 
2. Click New. 
2. Enter the potential details.
3. Click Save.

1. In the Contact Details page, the existing note details, if any, are displayed.
   • Click Title, Note Content, Modified Time, Created Time, or Owner Name  links to sort the display order of the records.
   • Click the relevant Edit or Del link to modify or delete the notes respectively.
2. Click New Note.
3. Do the following:
   
   • Enter the Title. It is mandatory.
   • The system displays the Owner Name. Click to change the owner's name. 
   • Enter the Note Content in the text box.
   • Click Save.

1. In the Contact Details page, the existing quote details, if any, are displayed.
   
   • Click Subject, Quote Stage, Valid Till date, or Carrier  links to sort the display order of the records.
   • Click the relevant Edit or Del link to modify or delete the quotes respectively.
2. Click New.
3. Enter the relevant details.
4. Click Save.

1. In the Contact Details page, the existing sales order details, if any, are displayed.
   
   • Click Subject, Status, Customer No., Due Date, Excise Date, or Sales Commission links to sort the display order of the records.
   • Click the relevant Edit or Del link to modify or delete the sales orders respectively.
2. Click New.
3. Enter the relevant details.
4. Click Save.

1. In the Contact Details page, the existing invoice details, if any, are displayed.
   
   • Click Subject, Status, Invoice Date, Due Date, Excise Date, or Sales Commission  links to sort the display order of the records.
   • Click the relevant Edit or Del link to modify or delete the invoice respectively.
2. Click New.
3. Enter the relevant details.
4. Click Save.

1. In the Contact Details page, the existing purchase order details, if any, are displayed.
   
   • Click Subject, Status, Tracking Number, Due Date, Excise Date, or Sales Commission links to sort the display order of the records.
   • Click the relevant Edit or Del link to modify or delete the purchase orders respectively.
2. Click New.
3. Enter the relevant details.
4. Click Save.

1. In the Contact Details page, the existing e-mail details, if any, are displayed.
   
   • Click Sent Or Received, Subject, Date or Sent By  links to sort the display order of the records.
   • Click the relevant Del link to delete the mail details.
2. Click Send Mail. 
3. In the Send Mail page, compose the e-mail message and send it. Make sure that you have a valid e-mail address.

1. In the Contact Details page, the existing cases details, if any, are displayed.
   
   • Click Subject, Case Reason, Email, Status, Priority, or case Type  links to sort the display order of the records.
   • Click the relevant Edit or Del link to modify or delete the cases respectively.
2. Click New.
3. Enter the relevant details.
4. Click Save.

Merge Duplicate Contacts

(Access Privilege: Find & Merge Duplicates) 

Over a period of time, there may be a chance of accumulation of duplicate contacts. You can merge these duplicate contacts for a better organization of your data.

To merge duplicate contacts

1. Click the Contacts tab.
2. In the Contacts Home page, click the required contact.
3. In the Contact Details page, click Find & Merge Duplicates.
4. In the Find Duplicate Contacts page, do the following:
   
   a. In the Search Criteria section, by default the some of the matching criteria are displayed.
   b. Add additional criteria if required, and then click Search.
   c. In the Matching Contacts section, select at least two contacts to be merged.
   d. Click Next.
   
   
   
   
5. In the Merge Contacts page, select the contact that you want to maintain as the Master Record.
6. The double entries are highlighted. Select the data that are to be retained.
   
7. Click Merge.

Change Contact Owner

(Access Privilege: Change owner )

When the prospecting is in progress, occasionally it may be very useful to change the owner of some of the contacts in a single step. You can change the owner of an individual contact or a group of contacts.

To change owner of contacts individually

1. Click the Contacts tab.
2. In the Contacts Home page, select the contact.
3. In the Contact Details page, do one of the following:
   
   • Click the Change link next to the Contact Owner details. In the pop up window, select the owner from the list, and then click OK.
   • Click Edit. In the Edit Contacts page, change the owner, and then click Save.

To change owner of contacts in bulk

1. Click the Contacts tab.
2. In the Contacts Home page, select the required check boxes.
3. Under More Actions, click Change Owner.
4. In the Change Contacts Owner page, click and then select the new user from the Change Owner pick list.
5. Click OK.

Print Contact Details

(Access Privilege: Print)

You can view the contact details in printable form and print them using browser’s Print function.

View Reports

(Access Privilege: Read/Write)

Zoho CRM reports are the detailed and informative list of records. Each report provides access to important data required for various purpose. You can directly access some of the standard reports pertaining to contacts from the Contact Reports section in the Contacts Home page.

The following reports are the standard reports:

• Contact Mailing List
• Key Accounts
• Accounts by Industry

To view contact report

Note:

• FQ refers to Financial Quarter and FY refers to the Financial Year.
• You can view a maximum of 2000 records in a report.

Delete Contacts

(Access Privilege: Read/Write/Delete)

Occasionally you may need to remove some of the unnecessary contacts for a better organization of data. This will help you manage your contacts in a better way. You can delete contacts either individually or in bulk.

Note: The deleted contacts are temporarily stored in the Recycle Bin. If required you can restore the deleted contacts again. But if you delete contacts from Recycle Bin, you cannot restore again.

To delete contacts individually

1. Click the Contacts tab.
2. In the Contacts Home page, select the contact to be removed.
3. In the Contact Details page, click Delete.

Note: You can also point to the lead record, and then click (Delete icon) to delete the record. For more details, refer, Mass Delete Contacts.

Customize Contacts

(Access Privilege: Customize ZohoCRM.com)

Customization of the contacts module includes, renaming the tab name, modifying the pick list values in standard fields, adding new custom fields, modifying contacts page layout, and show/hide the related list views according to your Contact management process requirements.

For more details, refer Customizing Zoho CRM.